I have a 5500/225 with 64MB of RAM and I also have the little S-Video/Composite video mirror card thing for it. I want to use it to play DivX movies while connected to my TV, but I'm having my doubts that it'll play them considering my G3 AIO can't really handle them. So my question is what can I re-encode all of my movies in so that it will be able to play them? I've played with Sorenson before, and not only does the quality kind of suck, it takes FOREVER to encode. So, suggestions?
Thanks!
DivX is already pretty low quality - you lost of a lot of information when the original DVD (most likely) was converted to DivX. Your 5500 can easily play MPEG1 at pretty decent quality, but converting DivX to MPEG1 won't be fun (it'll take a while, for sure) and the resulting MPEG1 will be of poor quality.
I suggest you invest in more RAM (dirt cheap now), a G3 upgrade (the faster the better) and an ATI PCI video card like the Rage 128. That combo might give adequate DivX playback. A better video card might also let you do DVD playback if you swap out the CD-ROM for a SCSI DVD drive and use the patched DVD Player. Be sure to get a video card with RCA/S-Video out (otherwise you'll need a scan converter, too). Also, your internal display won't benefit from the video card, but external displays will (unless you can figure out how to route the VGA signal back to the internal monitor).
Peace,
Drew
That helps. I think I'll just buy a scan converter and hook it up to a beige G3. Unless I get my dad's old iBook, in which case I'll just use the A/V cable to hook it up to the TV.
Thanks!
... would be to pick up a Wings AV card for that beige G3. These cards can easily output to a TV, and they do quite a good job of it. Mine makes my cruddy MPEG1 movies look pretty good (well, ok, that's the TV's low res blurring out all the jaggies and glitches).
A scan converter will work, but it's just another external box and noise source - the built-in RCA & S-Video out ports are better.
Peace,
Drew